The invention relates to a casting finishing apparatus and more particularly to an improved arrangement for cleaning burrs from castings.
As is well known, casting techniques are utilized for forming a wide number of parts, including components for engines. Regardless of the type of casting process employed, there are surface imperfections, such as burrs or flashing, that occur on the finished casting. It is desirable to remove these surface imperfections before any machining or final assembly of the casting takes place.
Conventionally, individual operators employing hand tools have been utilized to perform these casting cleaning techniques. Alternatively, the castings may be cleaned by some form of blasting process, but this has a number of disadvantages. First, the blasting equipment is expensive. Furthermore, the blasting equipment requires a closed environment and an air processing system to ensure that foreign particles used or formed during the blasting process do not escape into the surrounding area.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved and automated casting cleaning process.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved and simplified casting cleaning process for removing burrs after the casting has been formed and which can be done automatically and which employs multi-purpose machine tools as a driving force.
If a machine tool is employed for driving a cleaning device, such as a wire brush or the like, it is essential to ensure that the appropriate degree of pressure is exerted from the brush on the workpiece. The pressure should be great enough to ensure cleaning, but not so great as to mar the surface of the casting being cleaned.
It is, therefore, a further object of this invention to provide an improved wire brush cleaning arrangement that can be utilized for casting cleaning in machine tools, but wherein the pressure applied by the brush to the workpiece is controlled.